STORY AND PHOTOS BY BRUCE MCKAY

The 5 x 3.5 inch Willow Creek jasper bowl, carved by the author, after final polish.

When I retired in 2014 from a career as a goldsmith, designer, gem dealer, shop janitor, gemologist and teacher, I decided to expand my lapidary skills and travel the world.

I started doing lapidary work in 1970, but I never was able to cut stone for as many hours as I wanted. I made my living doing one-of-a-kind custom jewelry in gold and platinum, and I cut the occasional cab or inlay for a job but could not aff ord to take much time from my jewelry bench to play at my lapidary bench. Still, I have cut many cabs, completed quite a bit of inlay work, and I do pretty well around a lapidary shop, or at least I used to think I was good.

During a 2015 trip to Idar-Oberstein, Germany I visited the workshop of one of the best agate bowl carvers in the world, Bernd Hartmann, as well as the workshop of two of the best cameo carvers, the father and son team of Dieter and Andreas Roth. I had decided to shift my lapidary work into larger projects and looking at the work of Dieter and Andreas made it clear that I didn’t have enough years left in my life to become a good cameo carver. So I decided to become a bowl carver, starting with little bowls that I could manage. I do not speak German and there were no opportunities for me to play and get in the way in the shops there, so I began to look for another place to learn.

At the 2017 Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, Andreas Roth introduced me to Perry Davis, the president of Gem Artists of North America. I loved his large stone sculptures in agate and jasper, and he had some beautiful bowls carved in agate.

Examples of his sculptural work are displayed on his website, www.perrybdavis.com. I told him of my desire to learn how to carve an agate bowl and he invited me to visit his workshop.